Differential Effects of Cognitive and Structural Social Capital on Empowerment in Two Community Ecotourism Projects in Ghana

ABSTRACT

Researchers have cautioned against both erasing conceptual complexities and homogenizing communities in community-based natural resources (CBNRM) studies and interventions. Social capital is seen as an enabler of CBNRM, yet we argue that differential access to social capital and associated outcomes deserves greater attention to avoid oversimplification of community interventions. Drawing upon literature on social networks and social capital, we analyze survey and network data from two community ecotourism cases in Ghana to advance understanding of the empowering capacities and limitations of CBNRM through social capital access. Subpopulations within communities are considered. Results show that residents with greater access to social capital report greater levels of empowerment. However, that relationship seems to be conditioned by one’s involvement, demographics, and by the empowerment dimension under analysis. Implications of the differing relationships between cognitive and structural social capital in relation to several empowerment outcomes are discussed from theoretical, methodological, and practical perspectives.

KEYWORDS:

• Community-based ecotourism
• empowerment
• ethnicity
• gender
• social capital
• social networks

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the local communities for their engagement and participation in this study.

Notes

We refrain from citing the name of the communities to protect their identity.

Preliminary t-tests examining differences between samples regarding empowerment and social capital variables show that people involved in ecotourism (S2) score higher than the community at large (S1) by nearly all measures of social capital and empowerment. Exceptions to this include the trust, reciprocity, and collaboration measures, where no significant differences between S1 and S2 were observed.

SE are available upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a SSHRC Insight Development (430-2012-0158, UBC BREB H10-02499), various grants from the University of British Columbia and the UBC Public Scholar Initiative.